Business owners, marketers, and executive teams groan when it comes time for a new website project, and for good reason. It’s rare that a website project (particularly a redesign) stays within a reasonable budget or timeline. As quality HubSpot CMS developers become harder to find, and the biggest agencies continue to run into issues with scaling, a new website project proposal process can seem daunting. If you have only had bad experiences with website builds, what do you need to know to ensure things go more smoothly next time?

We’ve shared the warning signs that it’s time to ditch your current HubSpot developer, but you should also know what to expect when you choose a HubSpot developer. Here are seven things you can expect from a qualified, experienced HubSpot CMS developer when you’re developing a new website project.

1. A projected timeline.

It’s hard to predict exactly when a website will launch, and while the go-live day can change based on any number of factors, setting an approximate timeline or specifying a certain week of the month you expect to finalize the project is more than reasonable. If you have a target date, you can build a for deliverables, including the delivery of the design, sign-off and approval of that design, development of modules, and delivery of a quality-assured and -tested first draft.

Your development partner should break down the timeline and hold you accountable as well, by specifying the date when final first draft edits are needed, as well as having you name a single point of contact to manage all edits on your side. This minimizes the back and forth for last-minute changes to design or afterthought additions to the website. While there are always a few edits and bugs to work out, for the most part once your design is approved and finalized, development should be fairly straightforward.

Be wary of developers promising a very specific launch date or refusing to adjust a launch date based on how the project unfolds. Setting realistic expectations is important, and unless you’ve worked with your developer in the past, it’s unlikely that you’ll meet a set-in-stone launch date. There are a number of variables outside a developer’s control that can affect the ability to launch at an exact date, such as delayed delivery of edits, additional design changes, or out of scope work. While a single-day delay may not impact a launch date, prolonged delays or the accumulation of minor delays can start to put pressure on the developer.

Busy dev agencies typically have their development staff estimated out. If your approvals and content aren’t delivered on time, this could come back to bite you later. Be sure to do your own due diligence and understand that it’s possible you might have played a role in your delayed launch. The ideal developer will work with you and explain that timelines are a guideline or estimate, and the more closely you both do your parts, the closer to that estimate the actual launch will be.

2. A finalized proof.

We recently had a prospect come in whose HubSpot agency was bogged down (link when available). Whether that agency was chronically short staffed or just growing at a super fast pace, the Marketing Manager that we met with was pretty upset about the final draft that was delivered to them. “It’s almost as though they want us to handle the quality control, there were so many bugs and formatting issues. The proof didn’t even look like the agreed-upon design.”

It’s the worst to get clients that are unhappy with the delivery of a project that has such a significant upfront investment —so unhappy that they had to move development agencies to get quality delivered. By delineating the deliverables and responsibilities of each party, a client can easily hold their developer accountable by pointing back to the project timeline and responsibilities outline in order to receive exactly what they expect when it’s time for the final draft to be reviewed.

3. Feedback on your design requests.

We say it a lot, but your developer should be more than an order taker. If you approach your agency with a preconceived design concept and haven’t had a UX/UI expert review it, your web developer should have usability and design feature feedback and suggestions based on your goals. They should be experienced enough in the front and back end of HubSpot CMS to point out potential issues with design and ask detailed questions on your expectations for both the end-user and the marketing team that will be updating content.

A user-friendly interface will allow employees to operate more efficiently and users to find the information they need with ease, increasing conversion rates and selling more products and services. It’s possible you’ve got a great design, but you should very specifically ask your developer for their feedback and suggestions. Their answer will tell a lot about the depth of their expertise and understanding of the relations among marketing, conversion optimization, and development.

Related reading: Your Website Isn’t a Submarine Sandwich

4. Accountability and updates.

Sometimes projects run into delays. Whether we’re waiting on access to a third-party application that we’re integrating with the website, your edits are taking longer than expected, or we’ve just run into challenges implementing the design, sometimes projects don’t run on time. Communication is the difference between an experienced, accountable developer and an inexperienced developer who’s bogged down or doesn’t have your best interests in mind.

Your HubSpot developer should have your project mapped out from the start. Any missed milestone has the potential to delay the delivery timeline. An experienced developer will know this and reach out quickly to communicate rather than making excuses when the project is running behind schedule. They’ll quickly inform you of the timeline for out of scope work and how you can expect those design changes or edits to impact the timeline initially discussed.

5. Push for needed items.

Every web developer knows how busy small- to medium-sized businesses can be. With employees taking on multiple job functions and a huge focus on performance, delays in needed items can sometimes occur. Rather than sitting around and waiting (unless they’ve been specifically instructed to do so due to project delays), a qualified and experienced developer will follow up on deadlines for content, images, style elements, and feedback to keep a project running on time. They understand that your goals are important and that sometimes the day to day can get in the way of timely delivery. They’ll push for what they need and try to help you organize it as simply as possible for efficient handoff.

6. Training and support.

Often a website project will launch and additional work will be needed. An employee might find inaccurate data in the website, an important design change may be needed, or marketing and IT staff may need training on how to change and edit the website. An experienced developer will accommodate this by providing a certain number of hours for training, support, and bug fixes for up to a week or two after project launch. They’ll hand-hold the transition and make sure they’re readily available should anything happen or should quick edits need to be made. Your developer shouldn’t ghost you or fail to support their work after the fact.

7. Post-launch feedback timeline.

While a skilled, experienced, reputable HubSpot developer will stand behind their work and assist in the transition and delivery of your website after launch, they’ll also be sure to hold your organization accountable when it comes to edits and bug fixes. They’ll often provide one or two weeks for your point of contact to reach out with any issues that need to be completed or fixed. Once this timeline has expired, there may be a small amount of wiggle room, but generally you should expect to pay for any edits or changes after the agreed-upon delivery deadline. More proactive developers will have already negotiated a growth-driven design retainer of some sort to help ensure that you can continuously improve your website as your marketing evolves.

It is worthwhile to talk about the difference between defects or bug fixes and revisions. This is something that your developer will help you define beforehand and help categorize as they come up. Bug fixes or defects are items that aren’t working properly or weren’t executed correctly by the developer. Revisions are small tweaks that a client may find after the fact for elements that don’t work as well as they expected. For instance, the structure or length of copy or placeholder photos versus actual photos may make the delivered site different from the original design. Revisions will usually cost extra, but this can vary depending on the developer and whether the project came in within scope.

Related reading: the continuous improvement model

Strategy for what’s to come.

Continuous improvement is the next step for any company with a focus on inbound marketing. You’ll probably need to add more landing page templates, additional modules, or new calculators or other widgets as you understand more about the buyer’s journey. The complexity of the information you present will change and you’ll want to be sure that your website is keeping up with the ever-changing needs of your marketing staff. Having a growth-driven design retainer for continual improvement and evolution of your website is important, and your development team should discuss this both before and after launch to help you prepare a budget. This will ensure that your marketing staff continues to be happy with your website on an ongoing basis and avoid those expensive overhauls every three to five years.

Not every company owner, marketing manager, or agency that is outsourcing HubSpot development work knows what to expect or what needs to be done when it comes to a new HubSpot CMS development project. A skilled, experienced developer will have structures in place and communicate the needs and expectations for both their agency and your organization when it comes to delivering the project according to your expectations.

It might take time and it might not always look perfect, but fostering a close relationship with your HubSpot development professional is extremely important to the success of your marketing, the happiness of your employees, and the evolution of your online presence. Do your diligence to qualify any developer you’re vetting. If you need help, we’re always willing to provide a second opinion.